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Feb-Mar 2017

Wine Wizard
Wine Wizard

White Crystals After Crushing

I’ve had a similar experience — both with having to pick gapes at sub-optimal times (curse you, weather!) as well as having that rough white residue on my crush equipment. The residue,

Wine Wizard
Wine Wizard

Malolactic Fermentation Timing

I’m a little old school when it comes to malolactic fermentation, but it’s always served me well. There are some winemakers who try to get a jump on malolactic (ML) completion and

Article
Article

Tartrate Crystals, Blending Stuck Wine, Malolactic Timing

In my experience, doing a traditional cold stability where you chill the wine down and then filter off any precipitation won’t shift the acidity enough to notice it in the taste.

Article
Article

A One-Vine Vineyard

After receiving little faith from his family, a man sets out to prove that he can make wine from the sole vine growing on their property. And so started a new hobby.

Technique
Technique

Post-Fermentation Wine Adjustments

Our job isn’t finished when fermentation is over. With many wines, especially reds, you may want to go ahead and do a malolactic (ML) fermentation as well. And during cellaring you need

Article
Article

Brettanomyces

If you’ve ever tasted a wine that had a funky “barnyard” quality to it, you already know what Brettanomyces can do. Find out how to prevent it in your home winery.

Article
Article

2017 Wine Label Contest Winners

Here are the winners from the 2017 Label Contest.

Article
Article

Offbeat Reds

Getting sick of the same old Cab? Try a red wine that’s more out of the mainstream, like Carménère, Charbono, Dolcetto, Montepulciano, or Tinta Cão.

Article
Article

Year in a Life of a Wine: Part III (Testing & Adjusting)

In the third installment of our year-long series about how homemade wine is made using home-grown grapes in Upstate New York, we check in on batches of red, white, and rosé wines happily fermenting away.

Article
Article

Make Your Own Wine Vinegar

Winemakers spend a lot of time and effort preventing acetic acid from ruining good wine. But to make wine vinegar, Acetobacter is actually your friend. Find out how to make some wine vinegar at home.

Article
Article

Touriga Nacional

I was a late bloomer when it came to seeing the world. It wasn’t until 10 years ago that I had the opportunity to start traveling internationally. Despite growing up in an

Wine Wizard
Wine Wizard

Tartrate Crystals

I always think that trying to precipitate out some of the worst crystals that could form is a good idea, especially for any wine that may be sold commercially or entered into

Technique
Technique

Controlling Brettanomyces: Tips from the Pros

Brettanomyces has been known to take hold of wines —and entire wineries — destroying countless hours of hard work that was put into creating these wines. However, there are also regions in

Article
Article

Protein Stabilization

Get hot tips for protein stabilization.

Technique
bench top pH meter with probes
Technique

Monitoring & Adjusting pH

pH greatly affects the taste of wine as well as microbial stability. It can make the difference between drinking the wine or pouring it down the drain. Make sure you know when it should be analyzed and make the necessary adjustments.

Wine Wizard
Wine Wizard

Blending Stuck Wine

That’s too bad that you had some stuck fermentations. It’s probable that your yeast died out due to alcohol toxicity resulting from those high brixes. Next time make sure you’re adding enough